Miracle Mile and Hancock Park
This week I visited the Miracle Mile in Los Angeles, which is "an area in the mid-Wilshire region of a 1.5 mile stretch of Wilshire Boulevard between Fairfax and Highland Avenues. It may also refer to the surrounding neighborhoods (including Park La Brea)" (
Wikipedia). Prior to my trip to the Miracle Mile, I did some minor research on my destination since I had never been there before. According to Wikipedia, "in the early 1920s, Wilshire Boulevard west of Western Avenue was an unpaved farm road, extending through dairy farms and bean fields... Developer A. W. Ross saw potential for the area and developed Wilshire as a commercial district to rival downtown Los Angeles...[he] saw that the form and scale of his Wilshire strip should attract and serve automobile traffic rather than pedestrian shoppers." According to our lectures, these instances throughout history mark some significant changes in the urban revolution: this area went from agricultural and fairly underdeveloped, to a more industrial metropolis. Similar to the ideas in "The Emergence of Postsuburbia" the Miracle Mile's development constructed by Ross had to do with enabling the automobile transportation rather than pedestrians. In Orange County, Rob Kling, Spencer Olin, and Mark Poster claim that "specialized residential, commercial, and industrial zones were difficult for pedestrians to navigate, designed to accommodate the automobile driver" just as Ross had planned to do to the Miracle Mile. While Orange County (which is different from almost any other area of its time, with regard to rapid development) demonstrates all three main types of cities, or areas, the Miracle Mile accounts for a commercial zone. When I went to the Miracle Mile (on a Saturday afternoon) I was surprised to see that there were hardly any people walking about the streets (as there are in most areas on the LA area). Evidently, "Ross had invented the car-oriented urban form...the moves also contributed to Los Angeles's reputation as a city dominated by the car" (Wikipedia). So I guess we have A. W. Ross to thank for the wonderful LA traffic that many of us have to deal with on a daily basis.
 |
| A picture I quickly snapped while driving into the beginning of what marks the 'Miracle Mile' |
After visiting the Miracle Mile and walking up and down a few blocks, I found that Ross's vision still stands: He had "ordered that all building facades along Wilshire be engineered so as to be seen through a windshield. This meant larger, bolder, simply signage; longer buildings in a larger scale, oriented toward the boulevard; and architectural ornament and massing perceptible at 30 MPH (50 km/h) instead of walking speed" (Wiki). I observed mostly large buildings that were not particularly appealing to the eye while walking. I did notice that there were various small (mostly chain) restaurants, but I didn't come across many stores that invited pedestrians to walk up and down the boulevard casually, to stop into and shop. I didn't get any pictures that exhibit the themes that Ross had originally intended for (and succeeded in doing so), however I did take pictures of the few restaurants I came across, which, to me, almost seemed out of place.
It seems as though this area is slightly abstracting away from Ross's initial plan for this area by implementing a means of commercialization that is more inviting to people in order for them to gain attraction to the area. In addition to these chain restaurants displayed above, a noticed an art theme. After realizing, quite frankly, that this so-called 'Miracle' mile didn't seem so miraculous, I happened across a park that I decided to explore.
 |
| "Hancock Park, La Brea Pits" |
The park had slightly more people than did the streets, but the crowd was still sparse. People were casually strolling around the peaceful park, looking at the Tar Pit exhibits, statues, and museums (one of which was the LACMA, which I wanted to explore but couldn't due to a private event). It was interesting to me that there were so few people at the park on a Saturday afternoon, and I can't think of any reason for this, other than the private event (since LACMA is likely the main attraction of Hancock Park). There were also two performers that I saw: one man sang and played jazz-like music, while another man had set up several chilled glasses with different amounts of water to play music with. Both of these musical men took song requests from passersby. These performers differed from those I had seen previously at 3rd Street Promenade last week, in that their performances were more personalized to their audience since there were few people, and requests for songs could easily be made.
 |
| One of the tar pits, with elephants |
 |
| Some statues outside of the Page museum |
 |
| Some statues outside of the Page museum |
|
 |
| A panoramic view of the park. |
